Introduction to Cases

Arabic, like most languages, has a system of grammatical cases. This means that some words
change form depending on their function in a sentence. Consider in English:

I saw her
She saw me

These are the same two people, of course, but we use a different word for each depending on who is the
subject of the sentence (the doer) and who is the object (the receiver). This, by the way, is the difference
between the words “who” and “whom”. The first is for a subject, the second for an object:

Who told you that?

Whom did you see there?
The Arabic case system is simpler than most (Russian has a real dandy if you want a complicated case
system). For the most part, cases are not used in everyday speech or writing, and are reserved for the
most formal of situations. However, a few instances of words differing for case do appear in everyday
language (just like in English). We will address these as they come up.

One example is the ‫ ون‬and ‫ ين‬endings you’ve seen on plural words and on numbers. The ‫ ون‬is used
for the subject of a sentence, and the ‫ ين‬for all other situations.
‫المصريون يتكلمون العربية‬
but
.‫أحب المصريين‬

The case ending ً‫ ا‬has several uses. You have seen it used to indicate an adverb, such as ً‫كثيرا‬. It
is also used to mark an indefinite object of a verb, as in the sentence:
ً‫قرأت كتابا ً جديدا‬
ُ

This has no effect on the meaning, but is just a convention to mark where the object is, since Arabic
does not have a standard word order. Note also that the ending, although still pronounced, will not be
written after a ‫ة‬.